by Jake Bible
The door to his quarters opened and Tressa came in. Cash could only see her silhouette, so he waved at her to switch on the overhead light. She did. Cash threw an arm across his eyes until he got used to the light then let it fall away.
“What?” he asked, concerned as he saw the look on Tressa’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“This just went international,” Tressa said.
The two siblings were back at the command center in less than a minute.
“This stays between us,” Thompson snarled as he gestured for Tressa and Cash to join him in a side room.
Mike was waiting for them in there. He turned on a monitor and pointed.
“First, you need to know that I’m the only one that saw this footage,” Mike said. “I locked it down as soon as I knew what I was looking at.”
“And that is…?” Cash asked.
Mike turned and faced the monitor then started the footage.
The footage was from one of the drones and Cash was happy to see it had made it Flipside. He clapped Mike on the shoulder.
“Good job,” he said. “You figured out the timing.”
“Not the issue,” Mike said.
“Pay attention, son,” Thompson said.
Cash paid attention as the footage continued.
The Flipside FOB was deserted. Not a single person could be seen anywhere on the small base as the drone crossed back and forth over the area. Then the drone left the FOB and moved out across the Flipside landscape. It was dark and hard to see since night had fallen on Flipside as well, but Cash knew the roads and trails of the land inside the Flipside bubble like the back of his hands.
“This is from when?” Cash asked.
“Just after our briefing earlier,” Mike said. “Maybe thirty minutes? But we didn’t see it until a few minutes ago. It took a few tries before the drone’s autopilot got it back to us Topside.”
“Keep watching,” Tressa said.
Cash did and waited for whatever everyone was freaking out about to be revealed.
Then he saw it. There was a slight shimmer as the drone left the bubble and flew into Flipside proper. Below, maybe a mile ahead, were vehicles moving along one of the roads surrounding the bubble. The drone followed along, controlled by some protocol that was triggered by the movement of the vehicles.
“Is this the evac? Are we seeing the evac happen now?” Cash asked.
“Watch,” Thompson snapped.
Cash choked back a response and watched until the drone broke off and returned back to the bubble, the image shifting away from the convoy to show the return flight.
Mike tapped at a small keyboard and reversed the footage then froze it on the tail end of the convoy. He zoomed in, the image lightening until the rear vehicle could be made out a little better.
Cash gasped.
“Those aren’t ours,” Cash said.
“No, they are not,” Thompson said.
“Whose are they? I can’t make out the symbols,” Cash said, squinting at the monitor. “Resolution sucks.”
“I tried filtering it, but couldn’t,” Mike said. “All we know is those vehicles are not Topside Industries.”
“We believe they belong to either the Brazilians or the Chinese, going by the type of vehicles. Could be Russian, but only if they have switched equipment, which is possible,” Tressa said.
“But for them to be at Flipside FOB, they’d have to have been planning this for a while,” Cash said. “They either used a ship or transport drones like we’re going to. This isn’t a response to what’s happening here in Wyoming.”
“No, this is a response to what is happening to their particular bubble,” Tressa said. “Another reason we think it is either the Brazilians or Chinese. The timing of the turn cycles would mean it’s possible they have already been dealing with what we’ve just come across yesterday. And it is a lot easier for the Brazilians and Chinese to lock things down and stay silent than it is for us.”
“Perks of totalitarian regimes,” Thompson said.
Cash thought for a moment then shook his head. “Those aren’t enough vehicles to transport all of Flipside FOB’s personnel. If they came in enough force to take Raff and everyone by surprise, then those vehicles hold mostly troops.”
“Exactly,” Mike said.
“They moved the corpses into the buildings to give them time to escape before a surveillance drone returned to now and alerted us,” Cash said. “They weren’t expecting a drone to come early.”
He stiffened.
“They don’t know we’re dealing with what we’re dealing with yet,” Cash stated.
“It’s a big assumption, but yes,” Tressa said. “We think that’s the case.”
“Then we have the element of surprise if we move ass and give chase,” Cash said.
“I don’t care about the element of surprise, son,” Thompson said. “All I care about is getting back what they took before they get on a ship or get picked up by transport drones.”
“Yeah, I care about that too,” Cash said. “Odds are they snagged top personnel. I have no idea why, but it’s the only reason they could want to attack Flipside FOB. Take Raff and they know all of our security protocols. Take Lakshmi and they have…”
“And now you get it,” Thompson said. “Took you a little longer than I would have liked, son.”
“Brain,” Cash stated. “They came for Brain.”
“None of the other countries have a Brain,” Thompson said. “It’s why they could never turn their bubbles into multi-billion dollar tourist operations. They can’t handle the logistics of such operations like we can because we have Brain.”
“They want to go home and they need Brain to get them there,” Cash said.
“I already have Amanda pushing up our mission launch timeline,” Tressa said. “Other than the people in this room, she is the only one that knows what is happening.”
“If this got out, then the U.S. government would be here in a matter of hours and we’d lose all control,” Thompson said.
“Might not be a bad thing,” Cash said.
“You remember the Iranian/Indian crisis of 2038, Tre?” Tressa said. “That almost became nuclear because of a disagreement over the bubbles. And this is way worse.”
“I’ve managed to keep us out of possible military conflict all these years because I’m not some idiot hawk or delusional dove, son,” Thompson said. “The government finds out and not only do we lose control, but we go to war.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cash said. “Wheels up when?”
“One hour,” Tressa said. “Better go get ready.”
“On it,” Cash said. “But I’m bringing Elvis with me.”
There were more than a couple of exclamations.
“Shut up, all of you,” Cash said. “You know how tech goes to shit once outside the bubble. We got lucky to get all that drone footage as it is.”
“That’s true, dude,” Mike said.
“But Elvis can track as good as any tech,” Cash said. “I tell him to find Raff and Lakshmi, if they’re on any one of those vehicles, and he’ll put his nose to the ground and not stop until he finds them.” Cash pointed at the monitor. “They could have veered off in any direction after this footage. I need the beast to go full bloodhound.”
“Fine,” Tressa said. “We’ve already crunched the numbers. He flies in his own transport. Alone. In case anything goes wrong?”
“Nothing will go wrong,” Cash said. “He’s a good dino.”
“What I want to know is how those vehicles are working so far outside the bubbles?” Thompson asked. “That new tech would be worth the trip in and of itself.”
Everyone glared at Thompson.
“Not that I’m thinking about profit at a time like this,” he said with a smile that stated that was exactly what he was thinking about.
Seven
“You son of a bitch! Get in the fucking crate!” Cash shouted as Elvis planted his feet and refused to budge an i
nch into the massive transport crate. Cash shoved at Elvis’s right haunch, but it was like shoving against a mountain. “I’ll tranq you, that what you want? All doped up on tranquilizers? You know they make you nauseous.”
“Need some help?” Barbara asked as she walked up to the crate, shielding her eyes from the massive klieg lights that were blaring down at her from row after row of towers set around the staging area. “He did seem to like me.”
“I got it,” Cash said and shoved once more. Same result. “Fine. Go ahead and try.”
“Thank you,” Barbara said as she moved to the front of the crate to face Elvis. “Hey there. Remember me?”
Elvis chirruped with delight.
“I guess you do,” Barbra said as she stuck her hand through the rungs of the crate and beckoned. “Come over here and I’ll give you some head scritches. You like scritches? I’m sure you do.”
Elvis chirruped again, took a couple steps into the crate, then looked around, stopped and retreated a step.
“Oh, don’t be scared,” Barbara said. “It’ll be a short ride. It’s fun to go on rides.”
She made a clawing motion with her hand.
“Know what else is fun? Head scritches.”
“He’s not a cat,” Cash said as he loaded containers of feed and supplies that Elvis would need Flipside into the storage space under the crate. “He doesn’t respond to scritches.”
“I think he does,” Barbara said, still clawing the air.
Elvis snorted and shook his head back and forth. Then he took one step, two, three and four into the crate. He stopped, grunted, snorted, shook his head again, then five steps and six.
“Almost scritches time,” Barbara said. “So close.”
Elvis gave a soft trumpet and moved the final few steps into the crate. He lowered his head and pushed it against Barbara’s hand. And kept pushing.
“Oh, shit,” she exclaimed as her arm started to bend the wrong way at the elbow. “A little help, please.”
Cash looked up from his supply loading and tossed the box he was holding aside as he sprinted to the front of the crate.
“E! Stop!” Cash snapped as he reached in and smacked Elvis on top of the head. The dino stopped. “Good boy.”
Barbara began to pull her arm back, but as she did so, Elvis began to back out of the crate.
“Hold on,” Cash said. “Get him to move forward again.”
“And lose my arm? No thanks,” Barbara said.
“Adjust your position so your arm doesn’t bend that way,” Cash said as he rushed to the rear of the crate and the wide-open gate.
“I can’t reach him that way,” Barbara said.
“Trouble in paradise?” Thompson said, standing behind Elvis.
“Where’d you come from?” Cash asked. “Get out of the way.”
Thompson reached out and gave Elvis a little pat on the butt. “In you go.”
Elvis snorted and moved forward. Barbara barely got her arm out of the way before the dinosaur closed the empty space between its head and the bars at the front of the crate.
“Thanks,” Cash said as he lifted the rear gate and locked it into place. Elvis protested with a slam of his tail against the gate. “Oh, knock it off.”
“Good thing I’m coming along,” Thompson said. “Who else would you have to make sure Elvis stays on task?”
“What?” Cash snapped as he faced his father. “You are not coming. Not after—”
Cash stopped as Thompson held up a finger and looked past him at an inquisitive Barbara.
“Why wouldn’t he come along now?” Barbara asked. “Could it have something to do with the reason we’re leaving hours ahead of schedule?”
Cash turned to face her. “Can you give us a moment?”
Barbara studied the two men then nodded. “Sure. I’ll go check on Zach and make sure he’s going to be fine with the TI equipment that’s being forced on him.”
“Thank you,” Cash said.
He waited until she’d walked off and was lost to the shadows beyond the bright lights of the staging area before he turned back to his father, anger in his eyes, and an accusatory finger in the air.
“No,” Cash said. “Having you come along before was stupid. Now with all this international crap? Really stupid.”
“To think what you could have become with a decent education,” Thompson said. “I did fail you there. I should have given your mother the money she—”
The punch was hard and fast and Thompson was down on the ground before either of the men realized what had happened. Cash looked at his fist, the knuckles turning red. Thompson rubbed his chin, an equally red mark appearing around a slight split in the skin.
“Damn,” Thompson said, holding out a hand.
After a second, Cash took the hand and hoisted his father to his feet.
“That is a right cross to watch out for,” Thompson said. “Only took you a few decades to get that out of your system.”
“Who said it’s out of my system?” Cash replied.
“I could have you shot for that,” Thompson said.
“Who’d pull the trigger? All the men and women with guns used to work for me, remember?”
“Yet they’ve always worked for me,” Thompson replied. “And still do. Don’t forget that, son.”
Thompson patted Cash on the shoulder then walked away.
“I’m coming with and you need to get your head right with that,” Thompson called over his shoulder. “You’re welcome for helping with Elvis.”
The dino let out a snort and grunt at the sound of his name.
Cash turned the other way and saw Tressa watching him from a few yards away.
“What was all that?” she asked.
“I punched him,” Cash said.
Tressa moved fast and was in Cash’s face in half a second.
“You what? Dammit, Tre, next time you are going to punch our father, you make sure I am there to witness it,” she said and smiled. Then she gave Cash a hug. “Kind of out of character, but neither of us know how this will turn out.”
She pushed away and looked him up and down.
“You ready for this?” she asked. “I think we both know that this is more than security duty. You could see combat. Been a while since you’ve had to shoot at something that didn’t go extinct a few million years ago.”
“I got this,” Cash said.
“Good,” Tressa said. “Because some of our operators have never fired on a human being. I need you and Amanda to ensure that those operators do not freeze up in the field when push comes to shove.”
“Mandy knows who goes where and who is up for what,” Cash said. “I trust her judgment. We’re leaving the greener ones behind. No one is on this mission that we haven’t both worked with in the field before.”
“Okay. Great,” Tressa said. She glanced at the crate. “You sure about bringing Elvis?”
There was a loud snort as the crate shifted.
“For the trip there? No,” Cash admitted. “But once we get him there, yes, I’m sure. You’ve seen him in action. He’ll track them down faster than we will on our own.”
“I know,” Tressa said. “I just, well, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.” She leaned up and kissed Cash’s cheek. “Or you. Please be careful, Tre.”
“Plan on it,” Cash replied.
“And, if at all possible, bring father back alive,” she added. “Don’t leave me hanging in the wind back here, okay? He dies and I’ll get crucified by the media and most of the government. Not to mention the board.”
“I will bring him back solely because he needs to be the one to take all the heat for this shit, okay?” Cash said and laughed. “Let him get crucified for a change.”
“We’re launching in five, everyone,” Mike’s voiced announced over the comms.
“Gotta go,” Cash said then whistled and twirled his finger in the air before pointing at Elvis’s crate.
The dino went a little nuts as a f
orklift trundled over and picked up the huge crate.
“He’ll calm down,” Cash said, not sounding like he believed his words.
“I’m sure he will,” Tressa said, sounding even less convinced.
***
Fully strapped into her jump seat inside the cargo area of a large crawler, Amanda caught Cash’s eye and pointed at her ear. Cash nodded and tapped his own ear.
“Just us?” Cash asked, his voice drowned out by the noise of the transport drone’s motors and whirring rotors outside the crawler. Amanda was the only one that could hear him. “What’s up?”
“We need to decide now what we do if we find corpses inside the buildings,” Amanda stated. “Do we waste time taking care of them and getting them bagged or do we push on as soon as we have an idea of what we’re actually looking at?”
“We assign a crew to bag them up while we gather intel and plan our next move,” Cash said.
“You know how fast bodies decompose Flipside if they aren’t refrigerated,” Amanda said. “Especially if the FOB doesn’t have power.”
“Then assign a crew of operators that have seen their share of corpses before,” Cash said.
“The problem with that is those operators are the ones we need in the field,” Amanda said.
Cash sighed. “Tell me what’s on your mind. I can’t go round and round with you too, Mandy.”
“We hold most everyone back and only send a handful of operators into the buildings,” she said. “We see what the scene is only so we can account for what personnel is still there and what personnel is gone. Then we seal off the buildings and leave a team to watch the FOB and wait for any communication from Topside if they send a drone back to us. That way only a few operators know exactly what has happened and we don’t end up with panicked men and women out in the field.”
“All sound reasoning,” Cash said. “That’s the plan then.”
Amanda shifted her gaze from Cash.
“What?” he asked.
He followed her gaze and saw Thompson eyeing both of them.
“Right. The wild card,” Cash said. “He can’t go after the vehicles with us because if he tries to take control of any situation we find ourselves in, then we’ll have hesitation on the operators’ end which could mean good people get killed.”